Book Review: CLAMP's Legal Drug and Drug & Drop

Title: Legal Drug                                                                Title: Drug & Drop

Author: CLAMP                                                                Author: CLAMP

Rating: ☕ ☕ ☕ ☕ ☕ (5)                                                   Rating: ☕ ☕ ☕ ☕ ☕ (5)

If I could post a recording of the squeal I made when I heard Dark Horse acquired the English rights to my favorite CLAMP series, you might wonder if I was a teenage girl instead of a grown woman with children. To say I was excited was probably the understatement of the year – well one of them.
 A little back story, CLAMP is an all-female manga group that currently includes Nanase Ohkawa, Mokona, Tsubaki Nekoi, and Satsuki Igarashi. The English rights to several of CLAMP’s series had been licensed to TokyoPop, which closed their US publishing operations in 2011, thus leaving many titles unfinished and in copyright limbo. At that time the CLAMP series Legal Drug had been on a semi-permanent hiatus since 2003 and all three volumes had been released in English by TokyoPop. It wasn't long after TokyoPop closed its doors that CLAMP announced they were reviving the series under the new title Drug & Drop. Leaving fans to wonder if the series would be made available in the US, and if so, who would secure the English rights.  Fast forward to 2014, Dark Horse announced that they had acquired the English rights for both Legal Drug and Drug & Drop, and announced that Legal Drug would be retranslated and all 3 volumes would be compiled into an omnibus.

Since Legal Drug is my favorite CLAMP series, I already own the original English volumes published by TokyoPop, but that didn't stop me from buying the newly released omnibus. You might ask why I would buy the same manga twice; well, my husband asked me the same question. Since the beginning I've had some, let’s call them concerns, with TokyoPop’s translations. Translating from one language into another is difficult, especially when you compare the subtlety of the Japanese language to the bluntness of American English, but I personally felt that TokyoPop made unnecessary, and at times illogical, changes to many of the titles under their control. I haven’t had those same concerns with titles that have been translated by Dark Horse.

Since I have both versions I had to compare them. While the core dialogue is the same, there are noticeable differences in flow, and Dark Horse didn't ignore the “mini-bubbles” that were ignored by TokyoPop. The fonts were also different and the overall cleaning quality was better in the Dark Horse version – although that probably has more to do with advances in editing technology.

Like many of their titles, Legal Drug fits into the larger CLAMP Universe. And like all CLAMP series, there is more to the story than meets the eye. The main characters are Kudo Kazahaya and Himuro Rikuo (*). They are employed by Kakei, the mysterious owner of the Green Drugstore. In addition to their day job at the drugstore they are often asked by Kakei, or his equally mysterious partner Saiga, to perform “other” jobs that are often supernatural in nature and require both young men to use their own supernatural abilities.

Several layers and crossing storylines are present, but in Legal Drug they are subtle enough that they don’t confuse readers who are new to CLAMP. The majority of the book focuses on the “other” jobs with Kazahaya and Rikuo learning to trust and depend on each other. It also briefly touches on Rikuo’s past. But as the chapters play out, the larger story arc begins to materialize and we get closer to finding out why these four people were drawn to the Green Drugstore.

Drug & Drop picks up where Legal Drug left off when it went on hiatus in 2003. The boys are still working for Kakei at the Green Drugstore, but as their powers grow their “other” jobs become more difficult. The larger story arc begins to take center stage. We start to learn more about Kazahaya’s past and why he needed to run away. And we also learn a bit more about Rikuo’s reasons for staying at the Drugstore. And who shows up to prod the boys in the right direction? The shopkeeper from xxxHolic, Watanuki Kimihiro! This volume is more for the fans and has some obvious crossover characters and storylines that could be confusing to new readers. To be honest it can be confusing for CLAMP fans too since there are conflicting timelines and worlds within the CLAMP Universe, but it’s so fun to try to untangle everything.

The lead artist for Legal Drug and Drug & Drop is Tsubaki Nekoi, who (sorry Mokona!) is my favorite artist of the group. Her art is so beautiful and dramatic, and the way she uses negative space and minimal shading make her work stand out from other shoujo mangakas. CLAMP is known for drawing detailed clothing and hair, and these volumes are no different. Since it has been nearly 10 years between the last volume of Legal Drug and the first volume of Drug & Drop, there are some differences in the art style. Probably the most noticeable is Kakei’s and Kazahaya’s hair – as in you can tell the difference between them without relying on Kakei’s glasses. The shading has also changed a little and the overall look is cleaner and more modern, but still recognizable.

I love this series and I can’t wait to see where it is going to go and how it will tie into the other related CLAMP series. Unfortunately, after volume 2 of Drug & Drop was released in Japan, the series once again went on temporary hiatus. But this time a short one, while CLAMP catches up on the other series they are working on. But don’t let that stop you from reading both series. The Legal Drug/Drug & Drop series are a good introduction to the CLAMP Universe.  

*Japanese style name placement: Family Name, Given Name.